SL 500 electric roof and roll bar problems

[Weecess]

Hi

this is the first time I've ever tried a chat room if thats what its called so bear with me.

I have a 2001 SL 500 silver arrow. The electric roof and roll bar do strange things and someone out there might know why.

The battery is now kept charged with a trickle charger so there is always plenty of charge in it. When the vehicle has been parked up for a while and you go to it the soft roof won't lower even after starting the engine. However if you switch off and restart it will.

Also when the vehicle has been parked up for just a few minutes (and switched off) the roll bar flips up to a halfway position and won't move when you operate the raise/lower switch. The only thing to do is to start up, switch off and restart again and go through the complete roof open/close procedure and then it will lower on the switch.

In the past I had allowed the battery to go flat and used jump leads to start it. I've been told that this might have damaged the brains causing the soft roof problem, but the roll bar flipping is only quite a recent fault.

Any ideas??

 

[Sp!ke]

Welcome to the forum.

My initial thoughts are that you might have some error codes flagged after having a low battery voltage which may well have to be cleared using a star machine.

If you say what area you are from, someone might be able to recommend a specialist near you that can do this for a modest sum. Which ever way you look at this, you will save much time and money getting the roof diagnostics done to pinpoint where the problem lies.

As a side note, you should always open and lower the roof with the engine running.

 

[BTB 500]

Hi & welcome

As Sp!ke said, the first thing is to get the fault codes read and cleared as that might fix your issues completely. If not you will at least have a clue where the problem lies.

As you've found out, keeping the car on a maintenance charger is a good idea (assuming it's not a daily driver).

 

[IanA2]

I've just jump started my SL after the battery went flat. No problems.

As others have said, get it on a Star, reasonable chance it will clear things. Where are you?

 

[BTB 500]

I jump started mine a few times without any problems, but then it threw a load of roof/window/roll bar errors when it *just* started under its own steam. Cleared via STAR, and kept on a maintenance charger ever since.

 

[Weecess]

Thanks to all that have replied. I will try my local (Carlisle) independent MB specialist and see how I get on.